Danny showed her everything. The schools he went to, the bodega he would rip off all the time because his parents never fed him regularly. The market he worked at in high school.
He also showed her how to cheat the system at basically every stop they made and by the end of the tour they had free coffee, a full dinner and were on their way to find dessert.
"Hey Marco." Danny said to an elderly ice cream vendor who had nodded off against his truck.
"Danny? Danny! Wow wow, nice to see you, kid. Who you got there?"
"Marco this is my girlfriend, Lacey."
"Lacey, that's a beautiful name." Marco gave Lacey a single nod and pulled a cone down from the holder on the side of his truck, "What flavor is your favorite?"
"Oh, I—"
"No, c'mon, on the house. Danny is family and if you're in the family now you get the ice cream too."
"Okay, um—" Lacey smiled and checked out the drums of ice cream, "The black cherry."
"The best choice."
Marco packed a cone for Lacey and one for Danny.
"I like you." Marco decided as he handed them their treat.
"Thank you." Lacey said to the sweet old man.
"See ya 'round, Marco."
Danny and Lacey walked side by side further down the block. Lacey realized that at every stop there were tons of people walking everywhere but somehow someone always recognized Danny and welcomed him.
The city was easy and comfortable for Danny because it was all he could count on. The city was his family. Maybe pushing him to move to Green Grove wasn't the right thing to do after all.
Danny was thinking the opposite. If he could build something here, he could build a life anywhere. These weren't roots. Archie was his closest friend and right now Archie didn't give two shits about him. The shop owners and the ice cream man would be happy to see him but one day they'd be gone and no one would know him. This was a temporary life.
Lacey was his future. After revisiting the city, he realized that the magic was gone for him. He was ready to follow her anywhere and now had the means to do it. This was a goodbye tour. A goodbye to his struggle.
They stopped out front of a large granite building. Danny tossed his half eaten cone in the trash and wiped his hands on his pants. Lacey watched Danny look up at the building with big eyes. She couldn't tell if he was nostalgic, sad or scared. Lacey tossed her cone too.
"What is this place?"
"This is where I grew up." Danny swallowed and looked down.
Lacey reached for his hand and squeezed it tight. She looked around and sure enough, there was the jag parked a few spaces down. It was a small granite duplex, Lacey wondered how any kid could grow up here. No yard, nothing. It couldn't have had more than one bedroom inside.
"Whitney's parents live over there." Danny tipped his chin up to a much bigger townhome down the street.
"C'mon." Lacey took a step toward Danny's house, "Show me."
"They're not going to let me in. I don't—I'm not sure if—"
Lacey pulled again, "Show me. Please?"
Danny tucked her hand under his arm and walked them up the two steps to the front door. Lacey felt it was weird to knock at your own home but here they were.
Karen answered the door, "Oh for fuck's sake."
"Hi Mum."
"What do you need, Danny?"
"Nothing."
Karen went to shut the door but Danny put his hand out to stop her.
"I'm in town to show Lacey around. Show her where I grew up."
"Your father will be home in an hour, make it quick." Karen stepped aside and let them in.
The hallway was narrow, too narrow. Danny slid his shoulder along the wall like he had a million times, this time holding tightly onto Lacey's hand. Having Lacey there with him made it feel like he was holding onto a flashlight. It didn't seem as dark now.
They went to the right at the end of the hallway and spilled into the kitchen. It was clean, walls bare. No pictures, no little decorations or knick knacks. Everything was cold and black and white.
Danny pulled her along behind him through the kitchen and into the small living room. It appeared that no one had ever sat on the small sofa there. There was no warmth, nothing but a staged space in shades of white, black and grey.
The pair went back through the kitchen and headed up the steep staircase. Danny pointed to the room on the left and explained that it was his parent's room. He tried the handle on the right and revealed a tiny bedroom. Danny looked around as if he were seeing it for the first time.
"They painted it."
He ran his hand along the now stark white wall. The bed was stripped. He pulled the drawers open on his old dresser, empty. Lacey walked over and looked out the single window. It was a view of the abandoned parking lot for the building next door.
Danny opened the closet door finding nothing but empty hangers.
"Check this out." Danny pointed to the wooden doorframe inside, "This was where I measured myself on my birthday every year. I saw Whitney's parents do that and so I made my own."
Lacey ran her hand along the notches in the wood. Her eyes welled up at how much Danny had missed out on by not being a part of a loving family.
"Danny! It's time to go." Karen yelled up the stairs.
Lacey wedged herself into the tiny closet and began prying the door frame away from the wall with her bare hands.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm taking this with me."
Danny didn't ask why he just joined in helping to pull it off the wall. Once free, Lacey held onto it, careful not to gouge herself on the nails or smudge the pencil marks with Danny's ages and measurements. Lacey had a similar one at her house that her parents used for her and Clara and she had never thought twice about it. This was his entire childhood.
"That's pretty much it."
"Where's all your stuff?"
"They probably burned it." Danny shrugged, realizing everything he owned was now currently in the back of Lacey's car and mostly came from Gloria of all people.
"Danny!"
Danny and Lacey headed back downstairs and toward the front door.
"What is that? Where did that come from?" Karen asked from somewhere behind them.
"Oh this? You don't need this." Lacey said confidently.
"That is not yours, you leave that right there!"
Lacey whipped around and stared down Danny's relentless mother, "You'll have to fight me for it."
Danny's heart swelled.
"Just get out of here!"
Danny pulled Lacey back along the hallway with their tiny piece of Danny's past.
"That bloody woman, I swear." Lacey seethed from outside.
"Danny?"
"Hi Aunt Tara."
"Danny! Come 'round, say hello."
"She lives on the other side?" Lacey asked quietly.
"Yeah, but I was never allowed over there." Danny explained as they walked around to the path to enter her walkway.
"Why not?"
"My parents always said she was dangerous, crazy. Now that I've seen your ability to swing that door frame around I'm thinking we're probably safe to visit." Danny chuckled at his strong as fuck girlfriend.
They climbed up the steps together, Lacey walking through the doorway first. Danny had been at Tara's only one time before. He had made it just inside the doorway like today, but his dad came out and dragged him back home. He never tried to go again.
Lacey noticed right way that things were not well. It smelled like stale smoke, mold and dust. Tara's house was the mirror image of Danny's parent's house with the kitchen on the left at the end of the hallway. The hallway was dark, but Lacey could see lots of crooked picture frames all over the walls. She couldn't make out anyone in the pictures.
Danny strained to see a few and thought they looked familiar. Were they pics of Tara and his dad as kids? Maybe. Everything just seemed so old.
Lacey clutched onto Danny's door frame not sure what she'd find in the kitchen. The kitchen had tea-stained walls. Everything was a dingy shade of whatever wallpaper was underneath. It wasn't dirty necessarily, just very old, worn.
The kitchen at least had working lights. Lacey stepped toward the wall and wiped some dust off of one of the pictures hanging there. There was a little kid standing on the steps of Danny's parent's side. The kid was dressed like a dog with a small bucket in their hand.
"Is this you, Danny?" Lacey continued to wipe the frame off.
"Yeah, actually it is."
"Your hair was so long!"
"I remember that night actually, I killed it with the candy haul but it started pouring before I got home. That dog suit was like a sponge and it weighed so much."
"Aww!" Lacey laughed at the story, trying to imagine tiny Danny dragging his saggy dog butt home after trick-or-treating.
"Why does she even have this?" Danny wondered out loud.
"It's a cute pic." Lacey shrugged, she knew her aunts all had pics of her and her sister up too. Seemed normal to her.
"Aunt Tara?"
"I'll be right out." Tara sang from the bathroom.
Danny and Lacey wandered into what should have been the living room but found only piles of stuff. Unopened boxes of toys, clothes, random stuff with no rhyme or reason, all of it ranging in age from brand new to several years old.
"What is all this stuff?" Danny muttered and picked up a few things.
Lacey went to check out more pictures hanging all over the living room walls, recognizing right away that they were all of Danny. She knew he was an only child but surely there other family members here somewhere?
As she inspected each one, she realized they were all taken from Tara's side of this duplex, as if she stood at the door or the window and shot pics of him for herself. What was going on here? Were Danny's parents right about her? Lacey had an overwhelming urge to leave at that point, to protect Danny from whatever this was.
"There you are—" Tara appeared behind them suddenly and made Lacey jump.
"Aunt Tara, hey—" Danny went to give her a hug, something he'd never done before.
She clung to him, almost too hard, keeping him almost too close. Did she just smell his hair?
"You're so tall now, so strong, so handsome."
"Um—" Danny pulled her arms away gently and stood up straight, "Aunt Tara, this is my girlfriend Lacey." He tried to make this less weird for everyone.
"Lacey, so nice to meet you." Tara reached for Lacey and pulled her in for a hug too, "You're so beautiful."
Lacey leaned the door frame piece against the wall and hugged her back, sneaking glances at Danny to confirm how bizarre this seemed.
"Thank you. Nice to meet you too."
"What is all this?" Danny asked about the piles before Tara strangled his girlfriend.
"Oh, that stuff. Well I suppose it's for a yard sale or something I'm not sure. Do you want any of it?" Tara almost burst with excitement after she asked him this. Her thoughts and emotions were all over the place, kind of like his most days.
"I think I'm all set. A yard sale though huh? That sounds nice. When are you doing that?" Danny hoped that was true.
"Oh, well—"
Lacey watched Tara struggle to come up with another excuse for not getting rid of all of the junk she had collected and stacked neatly around the room. Tara was beautiful Lacey decided. She had long dark hair, dark brown eyes and lovely soft features. Those Desai eyes were unmistakable.
"Tara, are these all pictures of Danny?" Lacey asked innocently.
"Yes." Tara answered simply.
Danny hadn't even noticed that all of them were just of him. He walked up beside Lacey and inspected them. She had pics of him on his first days of school, pics of him at various times he could barely remember. Then he saw baby pictures.
"Are—are these my baby pictures?" Danny was shocked.
"You were such a wonderful baby." Tara gushed.
"I've never seen any of these."
"Tara are you older or younger than Vikram?" Lacey wondered.
"Vik is my older brother, by ten years."
"Hold old were you when I was born?" Danny layered his own question in there.
"Fifteen."
Danny remembered being fifteen. He was an only child but even so, he couldn't see himself exclusively taking all these pictures of his niece or nephew, framing them and then hanging them all over his house like this.
Danny took a closer look at the stacks of things hoarded around the house: new toys for every age from newborn through legos sets and scooters still unassembled in boxes. She had stacks of books and various boxes of unopened, outdated sets of headphones and other electronics.
"Aunt Tara, can Lacey and I check out the upstairs?"
"Of course, tea?"
"Sure, thanks."
Danny pulled Lacey up the stairs and opened the door to what would be the larger bedroom. It at least had a bed. He turned the light on and found more pictures of him in this room too. Pics of him at the park down the street and one of him holding an ice cream cone while posing next to Marco.
"This is too much." Lacey swallowed hard.
Danny stepped across the hall and opened the door to the smaller room. His mouth hung open as he stepped inside to find a perfect nursery all set up. A crib, a changing table, a dresser with little blue elephants all over it. Danny caught his breath and zeroed in on the picture on the table beside the chair in the corner. It was him as a newborn being held by Tara in a bed at the hospital. He couldn't breathe.
Lacey found him sitting in the chair and holding the frame. She pulled it from him and turned it around.
"Oh my god."
"I have to go talk to her—" Danny stood and almost fell back down from the head rush. Lacey reached out and steadied him, he hugged her tight, "Thank you for being here."
"I'm right behind you, okay? I'm here."
Danny pulled away and headed for the stairs, Lacey right behind him as promised.
"Well? Bunch of junk, right? I've gotta have that yard sale." Tara giggled and turned around with the tray of tea, "Have a seat."
Tara set the tray down and began serving them one by one.
"Tara—" Danny said her name as if she was a true stranger now. He had always known she had existed growing up, but they never spoke, they were never close.
Tara looked up and locked eyes with Danny and smiled. He could see it, himself. In her eyes, her smile. Tara was still young for living in a home that seemed frozen in time.
"My grandparents owned this house, right?"
"Yes. Until their accident, then Vik got it. He was the oldest after all."
"He let you stay here on this side, even after they died?"
"I was so young, I was thankful to have someone looking out for me."
"What about now? You don't want your own place?"
"I'm happy here. Good memories." Tara said cryptically.
"Why could I never visit you?"
"Vik likes things a certain way." Tara sipped her tea, "If I wanted to ever see you, I had to play his game his way."
"Are you my mother?"